1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method that improves instant messaging. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method that improves instant messaging by freezing, or highlighting, important messages in a second instant messaging window.
2. Description of the Related Art
Instant messaging has gained popularity, in part, because a user has an indication of whether a recipient will receive an instant message in a timely manner. The user accomplishes this by checking whether the recipient is logged into an instant messaging server. The instant messaging server handles instant messages that a source instant messaging participant sends to a target instant messaging participant. In addition, the instant messaging server informs a source as to which potential targets that are included in a buddy list are logged on to the instant messaging server.
A challenge with current instant messaging technology, however, is that the dialog (messages to and from another instant messaging participant) are displayed in an instant messaging session window. As instant messaging sessions can often last for extended periods of time, the user is often forced to scroll through past messages in order to reference a previous message. Then, when a new message arrives, the user scrolls to the end of the window to view the new message text. This makes it difficult for instant messaging participants to reference important older IM messages while still reading incoming messages.